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Live Mobile Real Estate from New Orleans: Smarter Agent Insights from the ERA International Business Conference

March 15, 2012

This week, Smarter Agent is attending the ERA International Business Conference (IBC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is ERA’s yearly conference for all their agents and brokers. This year, ERA is celebrating their 40th anniversary and they’re pulling out all the stops to celebrate.

Today’s activities included a parade through downtown New Orleans and a Generations Celebration at an amazing venue. The celebration took place at Generations Hall; “a former sugar mill in the warehouse district that boasts 7 bars and 5 dance floors”. It was a spectacular event….all dances floors and bars were used to full capacity tonight. Today was the first day at the conference and it was a great start! We met a lot of people at the booth today and it was good to see that a lot of agents and brokers are using the ERA Real Estate app; and those who aren’t now have it on their phone (thanks to the great Send this App feature in the ERA app) and will be bringing this great tool back to their clients!

A common question we ask to visitors of our booth is “Are you using mobile in your real estate business” and we’re still getting a few of the “I’m thinking about it” or “I’m hoping to start soon” answers. I had the opportunity to speak at both an agent education session and a broker education session today and I started out by speaking to that answer that we get from people. I told the attendees; and I’ll tell you now, you have to stop THINKING and HOPING about how to use mobile in your real estate business and you have to DO. Your clients and potential clients are using mobile to search for homes. If you don’t start providing them the tools with which they need to search; they’re going to find someone who can.

The great thing about presenting this message at IBC is that Smarter Agent has already created an app for ERA that gives the user the ability to search for all MLS listings all over the country. The tool has already been created; you the agent just need to begin using it. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get your own app. Under the ERA Real Estate app platform, you can very affordably get a branded version of the app that sends all calls and emails to you on any property that a user is interested in. Your branded ERA app is your digital business card that you can give to all your current and potential clients.

In 1999, ERA introduced their “Always There For You®” slogan. The ERA Real Estate mobile app characterizes that slogan perfectly by enabling you to always be there for your clients when they are out and about search for their new home. My hope is that at the ERA conference next year, when I ask “Are you using mobile in your real estate business”, I get a “yes” from every single attendee. Stop thinking and hoping, DO!